Winner Takes It All, Resurrection 2009

Many times people always underestimate the extent of capital's overly greedy pursuit of profits, and always wishful thinking that with rules to protect them, all good things are bathed in the sun and always develop in a positive direction.

The only result of wishful thinking is to ignore the sins and evils that are perfectly hidden below the water level under the cover of darkness. Perhaps they are the true meaning of the rules that govern how this society operates.

Strength is king. The only result that awaits the rules since their establishment is that they are constantly broken and reshaped, and then after reaching a certain critical point, they repeat the cycle and return to their original form.

Over the past century, relying on its power to suppress terror around the world, American capital has formulated most of the rules of the game in today's world based on its own interests. From the beginning to the end, it has only one core demand.

That is, at all costs, it will prevent the emergence of any rival that can match it on a global scale, any economy that is 50% of the size of the United States.

It doesn’t matter whether they were friends in the past, core strategic allies, or something else. As long as they can pose a threat to US assets, they are enemies that must be fundamentally defeated.

The financial industry, as the core means for American capital to maintain the America First strategy, perfectly embodies this essence!
Even if Oumeng, Dongda, Jiaobenji, Baixiang and other parties form an unprecedented alliance, it cannot prevent American capital from breaking the rules and directly using physical means to solve the problem in order to protect its own interests...

In the North Sea of ​​Europe, there are various large and small offshore drilling platforms, which continuously extract black gold from the seabed and then transport it through oil pipelines or special tankers.

It is transported to the European continent, which provides more than 1/5 of the energy needed for Europe's industrial development. It is very important to Europe, especially the Hans, Dai, British and Nordic economies.

Among them, the total scale of mining business won by Nordic Oil Company is second only to the two major economies of Dai, Britain and Holland, in terms of economic benefits gained through the exploitation of North Sea oil resources.

This made Norway and Sweden the richest countries in the world.

At this time, the offshore platforms under Nordic Petroleum are operating normally as usual. If nothing unexpected happens, these platforms can earn hundreds of millions of dollars in excess profits for Nordic every day.

In order to maintain the normal operation of these offshore giants, people have installed various safety devices such as pressure relief in most of their key locations, and left sufficient staff for each platform.

They are constantly testing and maintaining equipment and core components to ensure that there are no safety hazards. Although this will cost energy companies high manpower costs, it is all worth it.

Until the leap-forward development of electronic computer hardware and Internet technology, new technologies continued to emerge, and today people can even see the big screen thousands of miles away.

Realize remote real-time monitoring of any key part of the platform, and know the world without leaving home. It is not just for the transmission of information between individuals, it is first used in the field of industrial production.

The new system, which is supported by Nokia and Qualcomm Technologies, has significantly reduced the manpower costs of oil companies in maintaining individual drilling platforms over the past two decades.

From a peak staff of over a hundred people, the team has been reduced to less than 10 people today, because of the ubiquitous electronic components, the entire platform can be monitored in real time 24 hours a day.

If any problem occurs, the background will automatically sound an alarm, and then depending on the actual extent of the damage, equipment parts and maintenance engineers will be quickly transported by helicopter from the headquarters or a large platform.

Just go to the platform where the incident occurred for maintenance.

But now, this monitoring system, which is spread across key parts of the offshore platform, has failed.

At first, there were only occasional errors. Following the report from the on-duty personnel, the company quickly dispatched personnel to perform professional repairs. However, after the personnel arrived and conducted a thorough inspection, they found that there was no problem at all.

Then, another platform issued a more serious alarm, and when we rushed over, there was still nothing happening!

This annoyed the front-line maintenance engineers. After all, each platform used to have its own maintenance team, but now in order to save costs, one team is responsible for the maintenance of several platforms.

They are already busy with normal maintenance, and have to deal with constant system failures. Anyone would be angry.

Fortunately, after monitoring by network security experts, it was found that the problem was only in the system software operating code. If it were normal, all the troubles could be solved within a few hours.

Unfortunately, the problematic part of the code and system was under the responsibility of an American company. After the problem was reported, the European branch of the American company in Ireland sent personnel.

He shook his head as soon as he saw it. "These problems are beyond my ability to solve. We have to wait for the American headquarters to send a more professional team to solve them."

Nordic Oil Company was completely stunned when they heard this. One vice president cursed: "I knew that American companies were unreliable. When there was a problem, they actually sent people from the mainland to deal with it."

But there is no way. The essence of economic globalization is to allow various economies to open up their domestic markets and allow American capital to enter and reap the benefits, such as the operating system of the Nordic mining platform.

Originally, Nokia alone could solve all the problems, but Qualcomm, relying on the support of the American government, squeezed in and grabbed a large piece of the business. This is the rule of the game.

American capital is preferred.

Without Qualcomm, Internet software service infrastructure will not be given priority.

Complaints aside, the problem still needs to be solved. When faced with questions from Nordic Oil, the technicians sent by the Irish branch of the US-funded company threw up their hands and said, “I don’t have a better solution.

Perhaps you can try to temporarily shut down some less important subsystems to reduce the chance of system errors. Of course, I am not a professional and am not very familiar with the entire system.

I take no responsibility if anything goes wrong.”

"Excuse me, sir, where are you from?"

"From the white elephant."

"Sure enough, I understand."

The top management of Nordic Oil Company understood the situation immediately, but they were also helpless in the face of the current thorny problem. Finally, they had to follow the advice of internal experts and shut down some unimportant subsystems first.

After all, these things are not enough to affect normal mining. What's more, sending people from the United States will only take a day at most. In theory, there should be no problems in such a short time.

As a result, due to the compromise of a group of executives who were unwilling to take responsibility, more than half of the monitoring functions of the background operating system covering all drilling platforms were artificially cut.

Even the monitoring of some necessary key areas was shut down, which provided perfect support for the subsequent actions of certain forces.

It cannot be said that the group's top management is unaware of the risks, but rather that it is more economical to temporarily ignore the problem than to take the safest measure.

Otherwise, we can't shut down dozens or hundreds of mining platforms just because of a failure in the background operating system, right?

It would be strange if the shareholders and investors didn't tear them apart. The loss would be hundreds of millions if they were closed for one day. If they were closed for a few more days, the loss in next month's financial report would be enough to make the shareholders fly over en masse, stuff them into a trash can and launch them into outer space.

Besides, everyone is hoping for luck. Isn't it just that there is no software operating system?
This thing is real-time monitoring and does not involve the background control of the drilling platform. Stopping it for one or two days will not affect the overall situation.

As a result, some subsystems that were considered not to affect production safety were directly shut down. However, not only were the problems not solved, but the frequency of errors became more frequent, which was very annoying.

In the end, everyone just pretended not to see it. As long as the problem didn't exist, everything would be fine.

Normally, the screen would be full of flashing red lights, and the staff responsible for backstage monitoring would definitely report it immediately. But today, he just glanced at the time and said, "It's time for a happy lunch."

He stood up and left his work station without a care in the world. Even when a colleague asked him about it in the corridor, he just calmly responded, "Although there is a little unpleasantness, everything is fine."

"is it?"

The colleague who asked the question smiled, and when his back was turned, he took out his mobile phone and sent a message to an account: "Everything went well!"

This seemed to be a signal. After receiving it, the companions thousands of miles away immediately made a gesture of action to the group of people who had been prepared for a long time...

Meanwhile, on the monitoring screen in the oil company's headquarters, a few more red error dots appeared silently among the densely packed ones, but no one noticed this subtle change.

Just treat it as a system malfunction. Anyway, when the technical team sent by America arrives tomorrow, all problems will be perfectly solved.

But what no one expected was that when all external surveillance failed, the real crisis had already arrived.

Some large drilling platforms on the front line still have a certain number of staff members. They are the fire-fighting team. They are usually carried around by helicopters on the helipad to deal with various problems.

But now, they don't have to deal with it. Because the entire mining platform is collapsing at an alarming speed. No one knows the specific reason. All they know is that after a terrifying roar, everything ended prematurely.

The compression and collapse from the inside out was so fast that almost no one could react.
It was not until more than ten minutes later that a passing merchant ship saw the flames and rumbling smoke from afar and thought that a fellow merchant ship was in distress and reported it to the maritime department, only then did people realize the seriousness of the problem.

The operator looked up at the screen and was shocked. "Damn it! On the international shipping route, your ship is the only one there at this moment."

The area where the incident occurred is an offshore oil exploration area. Generally, except for special oil tankers, few merchant ships take this route. The flames and smoke rising into the sky mean that there can only be one outcome.

The operator was stunned when he thought of the horrific ending...

It was not until more than 20 minutes after the incident that an emergency fixed-wing aircraft arrived over the incident area, and the pilot was stunned by the tragic scene on the sea.

"Good, lots of fire."

Then the entire oil company was stunned.

Because on the same day, they lost four offshore mining platforms. Not to mention the direct and indirect economic losses, the key is how to deal with the aftermath and how to explain to investors and shareholders!
It turns out that they were too optimistic, because this was just the beginning.

As the news spread, the media controlled by American capital jumped out at the first time and publicly questioned that the leaked crude oil might cause irreversible impact on the marine ecology.

Moreover, can the oil companies ensure that there are no safety hazards in the remaining mining platforms?
At this moment, many people understood.

This is not a normal accident caused by improper maintenance or hidden dangers in core components!

It is clear that one party in the fierce competition of crude oil futures has started to overturn the table!
As for the instigator, is there any need to mention him?

See who jumps up and down the most, who ultimately benefits the most, and who is the mastermind behind it.

But it is useless to see clearly, because there is no evidence to prove this. Even if there is, it will disappear as the mining platform sinks into the sea, and US capital will not give any party the opportunity to conduct an in-depth investigation.

If the collapse of the four major platforms is just a trivial loss, then the voices hidden inside will work together to criticize other hidden dangers.

With the voices criticizing marine environmental pollution converging into a river, oil companies cannot withstand the huge external pressure, even though everyone understands what is going on.

But no one dared to take the initiative to step forward and break the window paper.

The reason is simple, following the crowd can ensure your own safety.

And standing up is tantamount to seeking death.

For example, there is gradually becoming a mainstream voice within the company, demanding that oil companies shut down all other production platforms and not resume production until all hidden dangers have been eliminated.

Who dares to object?

Who can guarantee that there will be no safety hazards while the platform continues to produce?

The people behind the scenes had already taken everything into account. Bombing a few of them was just a warning to them. If they didn't follow the script, they would be in trouble.

Then, if we just get rid of one or two more, we can send all the opponents to hell. Whoever says it is safe will be responsible.

Compared to ordinary people, oil companies are huge companies. There have been various environmental protection organizations protesting against them before, saying that they affect marine life and the ecology.

It doesn’t matter. Everyone is coming out to make various demands. Isn’t it essentially just an attempt to force a piece of the pie?
It's just a small amount of money. Give a few million every year and everything will be back to normal.

But now, an oil company seems so insignificant when facing the giant giants that control half of the pricing power in the world's energy market. It can't even raise a wave of resistance.

If we follow the general trend and sacrifice the short-term interests of oil companies, we can save everyone. Is there any need to say what to choose?
After fierce negotiations over the next two or three days, Ou Meng was forced to agree to conditionally close the offshore production platform in the North Sea, which supplies one-fifth of Ou Meng's energy needs.

Until they are confirmed to have completely eliminated safety hazards.

During this period, large groups controlled by American capital must be deeply involved in, and even lead, the investigation of the incident.

Secretly, the two sides had a fierce confrontation over when to resume production. In fact, everyone knew that this was not a question of whether there were hidden dangers or not.

The U.S. capital used its superior strength to launch a surgical attack on Oumeng's energy input channels. It was quick, accurate and ruthless, and it was clear that it was going to take it by force.

As long as Ou Meng does not agree to the conditions of American capital, the attack on its energy import channels will not stop.

North Sea oil extraction is just the beginning. Next, Venezuela’s energy extraction and transportation will be quickly included as the next target of attack by US capital, as a new round of intensive and severe containment plans are released.

Venezuela's energy export business has suffered a severe blow. This time, the US capital is serious about it. It not only sent a rumbling fleet but also went directly to the waters near Venezuela for deterrence.

It also sent a note to European economies, requiring their domestic energy companies to declare whether they used energy supplies from illegal channels.

The logic is simple: American capital believes that European companies use cheap energy from outside the free system to gain unfair competitive advantages by illegally reducing production costs.

And it requires an audit of the energy trading cooperation between Oumeng and Big Cat. In short, any product produced by Oumeng, once sold to the US market, or goods settled in US dollars.

They must prove the source of their energy, otherwise they will face suppression from US capital.

This is what is called globalization, a wonderful trading platform when American capital benefits from it.

A game where it can't compete and can flip the table at will.

When the international oil price dropped to $112/113, many small and medium-sized investment banks and financial institutions on Wall Street could actually no longer hold on.

According to the professional assessment of Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, when crude oil continues to fall to $105, 10-20% of the small and medium-sized funds and investment banks among the US financial institutions participating in the long position will go bankrupt.

When it falls below $100, that ratio soars to over 30%.

A new financial crisis is brewing and American capital has been forced into a corner.

If the price drops to below $65 in one go as the short sellers expect, then all the financial institutions involved in the long position (without considering closing positions and short selling) will be affected without exception.

All of them will go bankrupt, including Goldman Sachs and Morgan. No company on Wall Street will be able to escape unscathed.

If this outcome occurs, the chain reaction it triggers will lead to a disaster more serious than the 08 financial crisis.

If you don't believe it, just look at the Dow Jones and Nasdaq indexes. On the day when crude oil prices fell below $120, these two economic barometers experienced a 5% daily plunge, causing countless people to lose everything in an instant.

Everyone knows that U.S. capital is the undisputed super bull in the crude oil market. When even it cannot withstand the aggressive bears, the dominance of the world energy market will change hands.

This is an outright disaster for the entire world economic system built by American capital, and no one can guarantee that this will not be the beginning of a domino effect.

Therefore, all related bonds, exchange rates, and stock markets experienced dramatic fluctuations. The drop from above $135 to $112 alone resulted in a conservative estimate that U.S. capital lost more than $2000 billion in economic benefits.

If you want to blame someone, blame the fact that the European debt crisis is more serious than in the original time and space. Every time Qingyun Group and Dongda Capital provide capital transfusion to Oumeng, American capital will feel an imminent threat.

Then he tightened the rope around Ou Meng's neck.

Ou Meng rolled his eyes and wanted to cry. He just wanted to say one thing: "What a psycho! Dongda is almost stealing the tower over there. If you don't beat it, what's the point of you hitting me?" (End of this chapter)